AHA TechTalk is sent to over 15,000 homebrewers daily. TechTalk is available to members of the American Homebrewer’s Association as a discussion group specifically dedicated to the art and science of homebrewing.
I personally never read TechTalk. I have always found it difficult to follow. Quite frankly its a terrible format. It takes too much time to read. The people who adhere to TT do not really understand how much easier it is to use this forum - for one thing you can click on only the topics you are most interested. In TT you have to scan through the entire email. For another, you can post a question and have a response in minutes on the forum, as opposed to the next with TT. If you are in the middle of a brew session and have a question, forget TT!
That said, I really don’t care one way or the other if it stays or goes. If people are so gungho for it then maybe they should have a right to save it. I do think, however, that it is like people clinging to the Telegraph Wire on the advent of the phone. Doesn’t make sense to me why so many people seem so hardcore to keep it. My .02. I voted “pantless”. 
I agree with don’t care if it stays or go. I never read it unless someone points out something I should see.
This was discussed at this year’s NHC meeting in Minneapolis. It is old technology that requires someone to spend several hours a week to compile the emails, etc. It’s a cost and efficiency thing, plain and simple. There are enough forums around for people to get answers to questions in a more direct manner.
Regardless of what the AHA does with respect to TT, I am unsubscribing from it. I’ve skimmed it when it appeared in my mailbox but find it very disconnected. For example, if I missed the question asked on one day, but read the response the next day, it’s hard to know what was originally asked if the original email is not included.
Ever since the forum was launched, I’ve seen TT declining in posts, and sometimes would go days without seeing one.
I am using the RSS feed for the forum and I see every post in my email. I then can scan the post, deleting the ones I’m not interested in and open the ones I am.
I much prefer the dynamic “live effect” of the forum. I also read the TT emails but I could take it or leave it.
The forum has so much more to offer. It’s night and day to me. I really think the forum wins hands down.
But that’s my opinion and you know what they say about opinions. ;D
The only thing I ever found remotely interesting about TT was the headlines. Once they appeared over here too, goodbye TT.
I won’t go through any withdrawal symptoms when TT goes away. I get the mail everyday and skim the headlines. I may read one or 2 responses a week but most days I just delete it. It’s a format that takes too much effort on everyone’s part in my opinion (AHA’s time to compile it and my time to handle it in email).
On the other hand the folks who post to TT do seem to spend time making sure what they send is correct, accurate and phrased well. Not always the case on forums but this one does pretty well in this regard too.
It worked well for quite some time but I, personally, am ready to move on.
Paul
There is so much outcry on TT to keep it that it would seem counter productive to the causes of the AHA to do away with it. A huge number of people have written in the past week or so that it is a major part of their subscription. I’m glad that Drew and the GC is reaching out to try to keep it.
I like it and use it. I find it more polite and a lot easier, but I’m getting used to the forum.
Honestly if I check for new posts on the forum twice a day, it’s a bit overwhelming and time-consuming, but I’m one of those compulsive people that wants to read everything about beer so it’s hard to skip stuff.
I used to be like that, too. Take it from the voice of experience, you’ll get over it!
[quote]Take it from the voice of experience, you’ll get over it!
[/quote]
How much experience do you think it’ll take? I’ve been brewing since 1990, judging with the bjcp since 1995…
So far I’ve learned to skip some of the BBQ style posts, but that’s about it.
How much experience do you think it’ll take? I’ve been brewing since 1990, judging with the bjcp since 1995…
So far I’ve learned to skip some of the BBQ style posts, but that’s about it.
[/quote]
If you read 6-8 different forums (fora?) a day like I do, you learn to discriminate with your time.
Time to put it out to pasture, or should it be Pasteur in this case? 
It only takes a few seconds to scan the topics and see what interests you. As many have already said, TT and the forum serve different purposes. I see stuff on TT that I wouldnt think to ask about, and look in the forum for specific topics. I’ve only been brewing for 3 years, and maybe after I’ve been brewing 20 years, I wont find as much new stuff that interests me, but for me it is still very helpful learning tool.
TT is behind the times technologically.
If you wanted to continue this you could do it much more easily with something similar to Yahoo or Google groups.
People would submit questions, comments, etc and the person who formats TT could go through and approve or deny posts. A Daily digest could be sent to all subscribers. This would still take some time, but would be a lot more efficient than formatting all of the emails manually.
Having said that, I think forums are a better means of communication.
It also frees up time for the person who maintains this. Maybe they are spending it on… expanding the pub discount program. That’s a form of communication I can get behind.
I have to say I really liked the format of TechTalk. I have started using the forum but don’t find it as useful as TechTalk - it takes longer to read the topics since it is in a tread format and I have to keep returning to see the replies. New Topics will be fed to your e-mail but I haven’t found a way yet to get the replies fed to my e-mail.
Perhaps some of you can help on this but here is what I have found so far:
New topics will come to my e-mail - but if I don’t go to the forum - only one/category will come until I go back. - thus if I don’t go there for several days - no e-mails come to remind me to go. TechTalk just shows up Monday thru Friday and I can read it all when I have time.
No quick way to know if someone has replied to your post other than going back to the board frequently and clicking on the reply button at the top - If I am not reminded to go check something - it probably won’t happen.
I have checked several of the categories to get an e-mail on when there is a new topic - I will get one e-mail from each category - but unless I follow the new link - nothing more will come from that category - and with 5-10 categories checked I tend to forget which ones I went to check thus I quit getting emails from several of them.
All of these emails from so many categories are filling up my mail box - TechTalk gave me one e-mail a day and altho slower - I only at most had to wait a couple days to get a reply to my question (or I also got several immediate responses from people who prefer to keep their answer private). I also liked that I got several varying responses from several people who have different ideas - all in one e-mail.
I am not saying that I don’t like the forum - it has it’s place and I am trying to embrace it - but there are many endearing features of TechTalk that I really liked - antiquated or not - perhaps some of us are also antiquated - or perhaps some of us just like things at a slower pace. There is also something to be said on the advertising end of it - 15000 members got a reminder 5 days a week that they were AHA members and that the AHA was thinking about them. Not the case with the forum where you have to sign up and then tend to forget about it.
I’ve been reading about TT the last couple of days now with some interest but kept any thoughts to myself because I’m another that has looked at it a few times and gave up reading it because it was hard to cypher through.
I’m not going to vote one way or another because while I don’t think its all that great, I do feel for those that like it… once and if its gone. :-\
Susan, we’re hard at work looking at ways we can make the forum behave the way you want it to. Hang in there! In the meantime, look at it the other way around…it’s great for all of us here on the forum to have the benefit of your knowledge and experience!
FWIW… Once the AHA Forum was fired up I dropped my TT subscription. So much more discussion on the forum & as close to real-time as possible. Additionally I can’t imagine the amount of time spent managing TT that could be used more productively. The TT has served the AHA community well over the years but I think it’s time to move on to more current technologies IMO…
Follow the PROFILE link at the top of the page, then “Notifications and Email” under “Modify Profile”. Check “Turn notification on when you post or reply to a topic.”
In the same list of checkboxes, uncheck “Receive reply notification only for the first unread reply.” At least I think that will get you what you want – I’m still experimenting myself.